Dawn Group
The company, the Pakistan Herald Publications, came about as a result of legal wrangling over the ownership of daily Dawn after its founder Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah, who was also the founding governor general of Pakistan, died in 1948. His sister Fatima Jinnah, his political party Muslim League and the government of Pakistan all claimed the ownership of the newspaper as did the heirs of Haji Abdullah Haroon who was the biggest investor in the trust that ran it. Over 18 months or so after Jinnah’s death, the dispute became so intense that Haji Abdullah Haroon’s family decided to stop the publication of daily Dawn. They instead set up Pakistan Herald Publications (Private) Limited and started another daily newspaper, Herald.
When, finally, daily Dawn was not published on April 1, 1950, people of Pakistan and newspaper hawkers became highly enraged over the closure of what they saw as their beloved Jinnah’s newspaper. They, therefore, boycotted the distribution and purchase of Herald, forcing the family of Haji Abdullah Haroon to discontinue it and resume the publication of daily Dawn four days later – but under the banner of Pakistan Herald Publications (Private) Limited.
Today, Pakistan Herald Publications (Private) Limited, is part of a private Karachi-based business conglomerate, Dawn Media Group, owned by the family of Amber Haroon Saigol, a granddaughter of Haji Abdullah Haroon. The group has been publishing newspapers and magazines – including daily Dawn – for the last seven decades. Since the mid-2000s, the group has been also running a 24/7 news channel, Dawn News, and an English language news website, Dawn.com.
Business Form
Private
Legal Form
Not a formally registered group
Business Sectors
Printing and publishing; radio and television broadcasting; production;
Individual Owner
Other Print Outlets
Daily Star
Herald magazine
Aurora magazine
Spider magazine
Other TV Outlets
Dawn News
Other Radio Outlets
City FM 89
Other Online Outlets
www.dawn.com
www.dawnnews.tv
Media Business
Publishing
Pakistan Herald Publication Private Limited
TV Broadcasting
Aurora Broadcasting Services (Private) Limited
Film Production
Herald Entertainment Private Limited
Radio Broadcasting
Kohinoor Airwaves (Private) Limited
Business
Oils and lubricants
Haroon Oils Private Limited
Trade & Commerce
Pakistan Herald Mercantile (Private) Limited
General Information
Founding Year
1950
Affiliated Interests Founder
was the mayor of Karachi (1954-55), federal interior minister (1978-84), federal defence minister (June-December 1988), governor of Sindh province (1990-1993 and 1994-95) and the co-founder of an English language daily Khaleej Times, launched in 1978 from Dubai.
His father, Haji Sir Abdullah Hussain Haroon, was a prominent businessman and politician in the British India. He was a member of the Karachi Municipality twice (1913-16 and 1921-34), a member of the Indian National Congress (1917-19) and the president of Sindh Provincial Muslim League (1920-30).
Mehmoud Abdullah Haroon’s brother, Yusuf Abdullah Haroon, briefly worked as chief editor of Dawn in 1966 after its long serving editor Altaf Hussain became a minister in the cabinet of Pakistan’s first military dictator General Ayub Khan. Yusuf Abdullah Haroon was also a member of the last central legislative assembly of the British India, Jinnah’s aide-de-camp, the governor of West Pakistan (March–September 1969) and chief minister of Sindh province (1949-50).
Mehmoud Abdullah Haroon’s other brother, Said Abdullah Haroon, set up Eastern Film Studios in Karachi in the mid-1950s. He was also the founding editor of Eastern Film, a monthly magazine launched in 1959 to cover Pakistan’s nascent cinema.
The three brother – Yusuf Abdullah Haroon, Mehmoud Abdullah Haroon and Said Abdullah Haroon – also cofounded Haroon Oils, an importer and distributor of motor oils and lubricants, in 1964.
Mehmoud Abdullah Haroon’s daughter Amber Haroon Saigol is the chairperson of Dawn Media Group which includes Pakistan Herald Publications (Private) Limited. His nephew, Hameed Haroon, is the Chief Executive officer of the company.
Mehmoud Abdullah Haroon’s other nephew, Hussain Haroon, was Pakistan’s foreign minister (May-August 2018), Pakistan’s permanent representative in the United Nations (2008-12) and the speaker of the provincial assembly of Sindh (1985–86).
Employees
303
Contact
Haroon House, Dr Ziauddin Ahmed Road,
Karachi 74200 Pakistan
Tel.: +92-21-35675131-34
Email: nadeer.contractor@dawn.com
Website : www.dawn.com
Tax/ ID Number
0800854-0 (Pakistan Herald Publications)
Financial Information
Revenue (Financial Data/ Optional)
Missing Data
Operating Profit (in Mill. $)
Missing Data
Advertising (in % of total funding)
Missing Data
Management
Executive Board
A nephew of the company’s founder Mehmoud Abdullah Haroon, he is also its chief executive officer. He started his professional career back in the late 1970s as the deputy chief executive of Pakistan Herald Publications (Private) Limited that owns daily Dawn. He took over as the Chief Executive Officer of the company in the late 1990s and subsequently served many stints as the president of the All Pakistan Newspaper Society (APNS), an association that represents the country’s newspaper owners.
Over the last forty years, Hameed Haroon has started many publications. These include an evening newspaper, daily Star, an advertising magazine, Aurora, and a technology magazine, Spider, (that closed down in 2015). He also changed the company’s flagship magazine, Herald, in the early 1980s from a society journal into a current affairs one in. Since then, the magazine has become one of the most credible sources of news, views and reviews in the country.
A patron of arts and culture, Hameed Haroon has played a major role in the restoration and revival of many historical buildings in Karachi. He also hosts a music show on City FM 89 radio station and has compiled and published collectors’ editions of books on world renowned painter Sadequain and globally famous poet Faiz Ahmad Faiz – among some others.
The daughter of the company’s founder Mehmoud Abdullah Haroon, she is a director and the chairperson of Dawn Media Group.
Working as chief executive officer of Haroon Sons (Private) Limited, director finance at Pakistan Herald Publications (Private) Limited and, he is a member of board of directors at several companies owned by Haroon-Saigol family, including Pakistan Herald Publications Private Limited.
Other Influential People
A daughter of Amber Haroon-Saigol, she is the Managing Director of City FM 89 radio station, Chief Operating Officer of Aurora Broadcasting Services Limited that owns Dawn News television, Chief Executive Officer of Herald Entertainment (Private) Limited and Deputy Chief Executive of the Pakistan Herald Publications (Private) Limited. She is married to Danish Ali Lakhani whose paternal uncle Sultan Ali Lakhani owns Express Media Group.
The elder brother of Hameed Haroon and a first cousin of Amber Haroon-Saigol, he was Pakistan’s foreign minister (May-August 2018), Pakistan’s permanent representative in the United Nations (2008-12) and the speaker of the provincial assembly of Sindh (1985–86).
A journalist since 1981, he started his career as a reporter with The Star, a now defunct daily evening newspaper published by the Pakistan Herald Publications (Private) Limited. He also reported for the Khaleej Times (1984-1992), worked as a reporter for the Herald (1988-2006) and served as a Pakistan correspondent for BBC radio (1990-2006). In 2006, he became daily Dawn’s resident editor in Islamabad. He held that position till 2010 when he became the editor of the newspaper.
Further Information
Meta Data
The company was sent information request on 11 January 2019 through a courier company as well as by email on 10 January 2019. However, the company respondedon 20 February 2019 after a reminder was couriered on 1st February 2019 and emailed on 4 February 2019. The information it shared was partial. Its financial and administrative information is also not available online. The financial information, including about the revenues, profit and the number of employees, used in this company profile, has been obtained from a report the company submitted to the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan
